


Persuasion

by fade_like_starlight



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-29
Updated: 2012-12-29
Packaged: 2017-11-22 22:04:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/614855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fade_like_starlight/pseuds/fade_like_starlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>‘You brought me to the end of the city. Smart,’ Natasha Romanov - the Black Widow - said. ‘I assume the whole place is surrounded.’</p><p>He shrugged. ‘Just you and me.’</p>
            </blockquote>





	Persuasion

**Author's Note:**

> All dialogue is from 'Marvel's The Avengers'.

It was a bright and sunny day, totally wrong for the job he was there to do, but that’s pretty much the way his life usually goes. He’d have liked to do this from a distance, but that was not going to happen, either, of course. He drummed his fingers against the table and waited for her to arrive.

It didn’t take long. She’d entered via the back entrance. He’d expected that. She was carrying a gun. He’d expected that, too.

‘You brought me to the end of the city. Smart,’ Natasha Romanov - the Black Widow - said. ‘I assume the whole place is surrounded.’

He shrugged. ‘Just you and me.’ His bow was on the table where she could see it. He’d been tracking her for a couple of days, he had to assume she knew his strengths - and weaknesses - by now.

‘Who are you?’ Her face was smudged with dirt and her arm was streaked with blood. He’d gotten off a shot at her yesterday, but he didn’t think he’d hit her. (There’s a first time for everything.) Apparently he was wrong. (See previous clause, first time for everything.)

‘Clint Barton,’ he answered easily. She moved around the edges of the room, as cautious as a cat. Or would a spider be more appropriate?

‘Are you here to kill me, Mr Barton? Because that’s not going to work out for anyone.’

‘No, no. Of course not.’ He was. His superiors wanted her dead. She knew things - she would be devastating in the wrong hands. Had already been devastating. But Clint was not the man they sent if they wanted their orders followed to the letter. He knew that. They knew that. Without a doubt, she knew that. ‘I’m here on behalf of SHIELD.’

‘SHIELD,’ it was almost a sigh on her lips. ‘How’d they find me?’

‘We never lost you.’ Another lie. But they’d found her now. ‘We’ve kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent.’ The KGB. The Japanese. Mossad. The Sicilians. SHIELD had turned them all back. The World Security Council was told it was because they wanted her knowledge, that they would find out what she knew and then dispose of her. Those were Clint’s official orders.

‘Why?’ She was curious now, although Clint knew he would not be seeing that if she did not want him to.

‘Nick Fury seems to trust you. But now we need you to come in.’

‘What if I say no?’

‘I’ll persuade you.’ She raised an eyebrow. He shrugged back. He could be very persuasive. So could she. Together, they were going to rule the world.


End file.
